Increase Fundraising with Responsive Participant Centers

Mobile giving is where it’s at nowadays. It’s not surprising to learn that 79 percent of Americans use smartphones or that 21 percent of Millennials are mobile only. But did you know that 45 percent of donors now frequently use online fundraising channels? And that Millennials are transitioning into a core fundraising group for many nonprofits? That’s why making mobile fundraising channels available and easily accessible has become a priority for many organizations that want to keep pace with their fundraising efforts.

The mobile connection to peer-to-peer fundraising is particularly important. So much of P2P fundraising takes place online as supporters engage with their friends and family via social media or email. And providing a responsive environment in which participants and donors can take action—complete a donation form, register for an event, send a personalized thank you email—from any device increases an organization’s ability to engage with and retain supporters.

That’s where having a good responsive participant center comes in. In a responsive environment, no matter which device people use, from desktop to tablet to mobile, the program optimizes itself for the best user experience.

And Charity Dynamics has recently developed a standardized, out-of-the-box solution allowing nonprofits of any size to take advantage of this responsive technology. The goal was to develop a single setup of a responsive participant center that can be easily associated with multiple blueprints and events.

The benefits of a responsive participant center include higher engagement on mobile platforms and increased fundraising through the greater use of the participant center’s fundraising tools. Having mobile access to those tools allows supporters to take immediate actions from their phones.

And organizations are seeing results. In one example, event participants updated their personal pages 30 percent more often after implementing the responsive participant center. Updating one’s personal site is a key proxy in measuring overall engagement.

Setting up the responsive participant center only takes about two weeks from start to finish. Charity Dynamics collaborates with a nonprofit on applying the organization’s colors/fonts, logo, Google Analytics ID, and sharing capabilities based on its current site setup and provides implementation of the responsive code. Upon project completion, nonprofits receive complete documentation of the program including instructions for associating the program with new blueprints or events.

That evergreen aspect to the product is another key benefit. Organizations don’t have to worry about updates when implementing future events. Once the responsive participant center is set up, supporters can just pick up their phones and quickly take their fundraising to the next level.